Winning in Afghanistan, Bush takes aim at domestic foes: the recession and the Democrats

In January 1942, Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his first wartime State of the Union address. Three weeks from now, George W. Bush will do the same. His speechwriters have been looking at Roosevelt's words for inspiration, but the surprise is that, in many ways, F.D.R. may have had the easier task.

Where Roosevelt was worried that Americans feared the war would never end, Bush frets that Americans think the war on terror has already ended. Where Roosevelt called for a national mobilization against mighty villains, Bush must rally the nation against invisible enemies. And while F.D.R. focused solely on the long...